'Toxic Tour' Brings Visitors Face-to-Face With L.A.'s Landmarks of Pollution

A 'toxic tour' of Los Angeles raises awareness of the harmful effects the city's industrial infrastructure brings to adjacent, often minority, communities. Stops include a battery recycling plant, rendering plant, oil refinery, and scrap yards.

July 29, 2013, 12pm PDT | Jonathan Nettler | @nettsj

"You won't find any homes of the stars on this tour bus as it shuttles rubber-necking sightseers through Los Angeles," writes Tony Barboza. "You may not even see the Hollywood sign through the haze from the smokestacks, rail yards and refineries along this 'toxic tour' through neighborhoods southeast of Los Angeles."

"The half-day excursions by the advocacy group Communities for a Better Environment were begun in 1994 as a way to show a handful of government officials the consequences of their decisions in low-income and predominantly Latino communities."

"Increased demand for the tour from universities, school groups and families now has the Huntington Park-based organization hosting hundreds of visitors on dozens of bus trips a year."

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Trash talk and the real dirt on a 'toxic tour' of Los Angeles

Published on Saturday, July 27, 2013 in Los Angeles Times